25 Things You Reminisce About From The Past 25 Years

The year was 1998 and if you’re a millennial then you were in the happiest days of your life: childhood. You remember right? When it seemed like the passing of the year took 14 months. You lived for the Summer and dreaded the Fall. Going outside to play seemed like the biggest privilege in the World. We helped helm the online social craze that is today, lived through the War on Terror, and voted for the first time in our lives for a Black U.S. President. Now, we’re almost checking the 40+ box on forms, we’re survivors of a global pandemic, and now facing the possibility of more World Wars and another financial crisis, reimagining our childhoods is good for our mental health. These memories are sure to make you smile again.

1. It is very hard to find a Disney movie that you do not like. Whether it be the cartoon-friendly images of the Lion King or the 3D new-age Pixar characters of Woody and Buzz Lightyear, there is bound to be a Disney animated movie that you love.
2. Goosebump books lined your bookshelves. Readers beware, you’re in for a scare.
3. Everyone was a gamer in their own right. You either hand a handheld Gameboy or Atari. Or perhaps a console like a Sega Genesis. It was the best way you and your pals could spend time together while competing with each other. Ah yes, childhood!
4. Sugar for breakfast? Of course. Whether your go-to was Pop-Tarts or frosted flakes, sugary-based cereal was all the rage. We needed the energy to play outside.
5. You got into R&B because of Seal’s Kissed From A Rose. The track was featured in the Batman movies.
6. One of your school subjects was: Computer class
7. You learned what a blow job was from Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, it was a great time in America for sure.
   
   
   
8. You secretly tried to get left behind by your family for any vacation so that you could channel Kevin in Home Alone. I mean, it looked like a really good time.
9. You traded up your walkman for a discman and you begged your folks to get that Spice World CD so that you could reenact the performance scenes from the movie. 
10. You watched Nickelodeon shows and Disney shows. No need to pick a side.
11. Someone in your life gifted you a Beanie Baby. Great… thanks. 
12. You legit thought Lunchables were a food group. I mean who doesn’t like Capri Sun?
13. You’re still confused by the Dewey Decimal system in public libraries but you have a library card so that’s good.  
14. You had a decked-out yo-yo at one point. The ones that lit up and you could sleep. 
15. Your skip-it was your first calorie counter.
16. You mimicked the connection activity noise coming from the back of your desktop on AOL.
17. You got excited inside every Blockbuster.
18. You burned CDs in your house thanks to Napster and Kazaa. This would be the beginning of something you engaged with in your dorm rooms years later. They called it, THE FACEBOOK.
19.  You didn’t have a radio, you had a boombox that always had a blank tape in it ready to record your favorite tunes without recording the ads. Dance party here we come. Ah the mixtape era!
20. You knew the entire Hess truck Christmas jingle along with the Toys R Us jingle. We would shop the tv ads for our Christmas gift lists.  
21. Eventually, someone made you watch Sesame Street and there was something about that Big Yellow bird that made you feel safe. Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street?
22.  Riding the yellow school bus to get to class trips. Were you the one to eat your lunch before lunchtime? 
23. People smoking cigarettes anywhere. The public laws around secondhand smoke didn’t go into effect until we were older. Laws began going into effect around the early 1990s but didn’t fully be enacted until 2018.
24. There were a lot more movie theaters and attractions. McDonald’s and Burger King incorporated playhouses in their physical locations to engage children during their dining experiences. 
25. The world wide web seemed like a game. Could you have imagined when you were back in those chat rooms that we would be able to work, eat, stay fit, and virtually escape our realities, all with the click of a mouse? Or maybe a click on your mobile device? 

We live online now. But there is a group of humans who remember when we lived offline. Have we compromised our human connections? Would you like to be in person or on zoom?